Steve Harley is celebrating again, and he’s inviting everyone to party with him, writes Martin Hutchinson.

After fulfilling his ambition of performing the first two Cockney Rebel albums with a full orchestra and choir, he’s touring his album ‘The Best Years Of Our Lives’ – and why not? It’s the album’s 40th anniversary!

“To be honest, it’s kind of ‘fan-led’.” Steve tells me.

“It was brought up by a fan and I wouldn’t have realised myself. I thought it was a good idea, however I really needed to do it with the original band members, who recorded it back then.”

The band members in question are guitarist Jim Cregan, keyboard player Duncan Mackay and drummer Stuart Elliot.

Four decades have passed since then so it might have been a problem to get them all back together, but Steve says it was surprisingly easy.

“Jim is still a very good friend and works a lot with Rod Stewart. I’ve worked with Jim a lot over the years, so it wasn’t really difficult to get him.

“Then I managed to get Duncan’s email address, contacted him and found that Stuart was in contact with him too.

“I wrote to them all earlier this year and they all came straight back and agreed in principle (depending on schedules etc).”